Communal Property Rights and Deforestation: Evidence From Colombia

19 Pages Posted: 24 May 2018

See all articles by Mauricio Romero

Mauricio Romero

ITAM, Centro de Investigación Económica

Santiago Saavedra

Universidad del Rosario - Faculty of Economics

Date Written: May 15, 2018

Abstract

Deforestation is a large contributor to climate change. Controlling deforestation is difficult, especially because there are 484 million of hectares of forest that are community owned. In principle this arrangement could lead to a tragedy of the "commons", however there could be economies of scale on monitoring outsiders' deforestation. We study the effect of communal titling on deforestation in Colombia, using a difference-in-differences strategy at the border. We find that deforestation decreased only in small communal titles, even when the control area are national parks. This suggests that communal titling can be effective on reducing deforestation if inhabitants can monitor the area titled.

Keywords: Deforestation, Communal Titling

JEL Classification: P32, Q23

Suggested Citation

Romero, Mauricio and Saavedra, Santiago, Communal Property Rights and Deforestation: Evidence From Colombia (May 15, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3179052 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3179052

Mauricio Romero

ITAM, Centro de Investigación Económica ( email )

Camino a Santa Teresa No. 930
Col. Héroes de Padierna
Ciudad de México
Mexico

Santiago Saavedra (Contact Author)

Universidad del Rosario - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Casa Pedro Fermín
Calle 12C # 4-69
Bogota
Colombia

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